How Efficacy is Developed

Well that took a lot longer than expected! Back in action after a tough few weeks in 2020. I left off talking about how my research came to be and I promised to talk more about the actual development of efficacy….so here it goes…

Efficacy as defined in an earlier blog post ebbs and flow over time, yet there are four stages of development or growth. As a social learning theory ones behavior, environment, and person all relate to one another as self-efficacy is developed. Inactive mastery experiences provide the most authentic evidence of whether to not one will be able to succeed. Successes help to build personal efficacy, as failures undermine it. The more successes one has over time, the higher level of personal efficacy is maintained.

Role modeling or vicarious experiences help to further build ones efficacy levels. People tend to appraise their own capabilities based on the attainments of others, otherwise known as social comparison. Surpassing others or competitors increases ones efficacy level, while being outperformed lowers them. Basically, we like to compare our successes to others in order to feel better about our own performances.

Verbal persuasion or positive affirmations help to increase levels of personal efficacy. Optimistic social performance over time is the best strategy to utilize when helping to increase ones efficacy level, rather than just noting high performance achievements. Diagnosing strengths and weaknesses can also work to enhance performance as one looks to achieve certain goals that have been set.

Finally, one can judge their level of efficacy based on physiological and affective states of being. Overall health and wellness of any individual can impact assessment of personal efficacy. The best way to alter or increase states of efficacy can include reducing stress, enhance physical status, and correct misinterpretations of bodily states. If we don’t feel good about ourselves or our emotional state, levels of efficacy can decrease.

My research on the impact of formal sorority recruitment on the development of efficacy on sorority women clearly finds many aspects involved truly negate self and collective efficacy for individual women, as well as the chapter as a whole. Both high and low recruiting strength chapter were studied. Many women felt as though their membership selection opportunities were taken away from them by using the Release Figure Method as supported by the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC).

Efficacy in Sorority Recruitment

As I began to look more into the growth and development of efficacy, I was also throwing around the idea of how formal sorority recruitment may impact one’s self and collective efficacy as a member of any sorority chapter. It was clear that no research had been conducted on this topic and I found my gap in the research. Each time I read something else on the development of self-efficacy, I found myself thinking how relevant this was to participation in sorority recruitment, both as a potential new member or an initiated member.

Sororities were originally founded as a way to connect women to other women in order to support and care for one another during a time when they were not welcome on many college campuses. Men were the majority and women were a distant second in all opportunities available at colleges and universities. Women found comfort in coming together and creating a home away from home for one another within their individual sororities. Each respective sorority developed a common purpose for which they would strive for, while the universal concepts of friendship, care, and support continued to be at the core of what participation in sorority life promised.

What I had repeatedly heard from sorority women is that the system selected their members for them and oftentimes they felt as though they had no actual choice. The “system” they were referring to is the Release Figure Method. Individual sorority women shared with me that whatever is planned for a recruitment event does not matter because every potential new member will be invited back regardless of how the women may feel about a particular potential new member. Sorority women explained that the chapter loses momentum and tends to feel discouraged when they are told to meet a certain number of potential new members, instead of recruiting women whose experience and values align with the mission of the organization and will do well in the chapter. The women in the chapter are well aware of how well or poorly they are performing throughout a formalized recruitment process by the number of potential new members they are told to invite back to each round of recruitment. Their sense of confidence may be diminished and level of mastery questioned, which might lower the overall self and collective efficacy for individual women in the chapter, as well as the chapter as a whole. Sorority women have explained the loss of positive feelings regarding how the chapter is progressing throughout the recruitment process and perceive the chapter will never be successful in the recruitment process.

This was it! I had dated my topic long enough to know marrying it was the right way to go. My research questions that guided my study were:

• How may participation in formal sorority recruitment impact feelings of self and collective efficacy?

• How may formal sorority recruitment efficacy expectancy influence the development of self and collective efficacy?

The possibility that participation in formal sorority recruitment may have an impact on efficacy levels could have significant influence on how organizations educate and train their women on recruitment practices, but also could provide sorority chapters a way to work towards a more balanced idea of what sisterhood could really mean to them. I considered my research to be the starting point for future studies to be conducted to assist in creating a base of scholarly literature on the concept of efficacy within the sorority experience…and I was off and running (or writing…depending on how you look at it!).

Why Efficacy?

Funny question, really! My research goal when I originally started my doctoral journey was to explore sorority recruitment - benefits, misconceptions, positive and negatives experiences of sorority women. At the time my experience with sorority chapters that didn’t always have the best recruitment outcomes was concerning. Most of the time I would see individual women and chapters really look down on themselves because they didn’t match to quota or women didn’t sign with them on Bid Day.

There was a psychological effect on women that was purely negative and led to feelings of inadequacy and lowered self confidence. Women were feeling like they didn’t matter and they weren’t a viable option for potential members on their campus…and they didn’t know why!

When I first started diving into the effects of formal Panhellenic recruitment, I found that individual women were saying the same thing. They all expressed feeling like something was wrong or different about them or their chapter. They were the outlier on their campus. The lack of confidence they were explaining was interesting to me and as I continued to research the concept of efficacy was right there on my computer screen.

Efficacy is different than confidence. Confidence is the belief in oneself.

Efficacy is the belief that one can produce a desired or intended result. What I was hearing from women was that they lacked confidence in themselves throughout the formal recruitment process based on past recruitment numbers, which led their self-efficacy to decrease because they never felt as though they were going to be able to meet quota.

So here I was promoting the benefits of sorority and lifelong sisterhood, while women didn’t even believe that about themselves. I often felt like I was lying to women about what their experiences could look like! I started talking with more sorority women, National organization staff members and volunteers, and fraternity/sorority advisors. Many shared they had similar experiences with sorority women. We were also hearing from strong recruiting chapters that they felt as though they didn’t always want to release a certain amount of women who they were interested in. What I found was that sorority women had A LOT to say about the use of the Release Figure Method during a formalized Panhellenic recruitment period.

This is where my research journey began! I was excited and nervous that I had found my topic. More to come in my next blog post!